A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Thursday issued a production warrant against jailed AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh in a defamation case over his remarks regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational degree. The court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate SJ Panchal issued the production warrant against Singh after his lawyer informed the court that he had not received any instruction from his client because the Aam Aadmi Party leader is behind bars in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Singh was arrested on October 5 in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam in Delhi.
Through the production warrant, the magistrate directed the local police to take custody of Singh from Tihar jail and produce him before the court at 11 am on January 11 when the court will take up further hearing in the case. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Singh are accused of tarnishing Gujarat University’s (GU) image through their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements in connection with PM Modi’s degree.
When the court on Thursday initiated examination of witnesses, Kejriwal’s lawyer submitted an exemption plea from appearance. The court accepted the plea.
When Singh’s lawyer informed the court that he had not received any instructions from Singh because the AAP leader was behind bars, GU’s lawyer Amit Nair took a strong objection saying it was a tactic by the AAP leader to further delay the matter. He then urged magistrate Panchal to issue a production warrant against Singh. The court accepted Nair’s plea and issued a warrant. The court had summoned the two leaders in the past after observing that prima facie there appeared to be a case against them under section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
GU registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against the two leaders over their comments after the Gujarat HC set aside the Chief Information Commissioner’s order on PM Modi’s degree.
They made “defamatory” statements in press conferences and on their Twitter, now X, handles targeting the university over Modi’s degree, the complainant stated.
He said that the AAP leaders’ comments targeting GU were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the university which has established its name among the public.